Dear Marc, Yme, Raymond and other queen bees,

Today is the day of the 4th Accenture Innovation Awards for Communications and High Tech and in this light there’s no bigger recent news than the recent sale of the largest Dutch internet platform, the social network Hyves. In 2007, when you hit the 5 million members mark, you won the award as most innovative company in the Netherlands. Back then, Yme and Marc just got on board to expand the network. In a video interview at the awards ceremony, Yme summarized the ambitions as growing by being integrated with many web services with a social component. In the first you succeeded, in the latter you have your big chance now.

First of all, a big congrats to all of you. You have grown Hyves to strongest web properties in the Netherlands, with 5,1 million active Dutch members with an average age of 31. I’ve gotten to know some of you and I am impressed with your smarts and dedication and I am sure you have done what you felt was right for the whole thing. Still, you have sold the digital home of many many bees and I do have some doubts about the future. I’d like your thoughts on the following:

Innovation

I cannot name an innovative, mature internet company that has gotten  better after a take-over by a large publisher. The social-takeover-by-publisher example is of course the MySpace – News Corp deal. MySpace is slipping fast and is likely to become the next Friendster. Anyone who has read the book Steeling Myspace knows why, anyone who hasn’t can guess: different shareholders, other values and bureacratic reporting lines to social media newbies. How will you continue to truly innovate in a non-innovative environment?

Business model

Social media platforms like Hyves create huge value, but have difficulty capturing this. Still, the old advertising model is used because, frankly, there is no other succesful way invented yet. Hence we’re stuck in a model of reach, of paying for eyeballs. Is classic advertising behemoth TMG going to change this? For now, all I read is TMG’s intention to get more out of the advertising opportunities….

Relevance

My third point of concern was going to be Privacy but there is something a lot bigger that concerns me. How will you keep the relevance to the Hyver your number one priority, while TMG is already talking about integrating its web properties in our hyves. Sure, some might fit well and will actually add value, but Funda might add more value than Jaap.nl….. . Will you continue to integrate TMG competitors for the greater good of all bees?

Let us know, I’m sure you have the answers,

Jort

PS: A refresh: Yme Bosma at the Accenture Innovation Awards 2007 on the ambition of Hyves